Blog name URLs and vBSEO

[McMendo]

I read that vBSEO is working towards implementing SEO for vBlog, which is great.

Then there is also the possibility to have the member/blogger's name in the URL of his blog homepage, and further to rewrite it as a subdomain, as in joe.myforums.com, which is also great.

But, what when/if the member decides to change his name? All search engine indexing so far will go waste..

The suggestion would be to add the ability to create a blog for a given user (joe) with a name different to the user's. So for example's user joe's blog would be 'identityproblem' and the URL rewritten to identityproblem.myforums.com. If joe decides to change name to jack, his blog would still be identityproblem.myforums.com.

[noppid]

When you create the rewrite, put the userid in the url and it won't matter if their name changes. The same thing is done on user profiles.

They know what's up over there. Don't worry.

[FreshFroot_]

I read that vBSEO is working towards implementing SEO for vBlog, which is great.

Then there is also the possibility to have the member/blogger's name in the URL of his blog homepage, and further to rewrite it as a subdomain, as in joe.myforums.com, which is also great.

But, what when/if the member decides to change his name? All search engine indexing so far will go waste..

The suggestion would be to add the ability to create a blog for a given user (joe) with a name different to the user's. So for example's user joe's blog would be 'identityproblem' and the URL rewritten to identityproblem.myforums.com. If joe decides to change name to jack, his blog would still be identityproblem.myforums.com.
NuSEO (http://www.nuhits.com/) can already make blog urls user friendly. The downside to your question is, what if someone were to create a new username and someone else took their old one??? Then a redirect makes no sense.. hence, why users should not really be allowed to change their username too often.

[Michelle]

I read that vBSEO is working towards implementing SEO for vBlog, which is great.

Then there is also the possibility to have the member/blogger's name in the URL of his blog homepage, and further to rewrite it as a subdomain, as in joe.myforums.com, which is also great.

But, what when/if the member decides to change his name? All search engine indexing so far will go waste..

The suggestion would be to add the ability to create a blog for a given user (joe) with a name different to the user's. So for example's user joe's blog would be 'identityproblem' and the URL rewritten to identityproblem.myforums.com. If joe decides to change name to jack, his blog would still be identityproblem.myforums.com.
Completely agree, this is what most popular blog hosts do.

[Lizard King]

But that will not be good on seo purposes because users tend to change their blog names from time to time and each time they change their blogs name , the url will change which will create a huge seo flaw. Also i never find any blog supplier who allow you to use your blog name as your blog url. All the major blog hosts allow you to use your nickname in urls which can't be changed.

[Michelle]

But that will not be good on seo purposes because users tend to change their blog names from time to time and each time they change their blogs name , the url will change which will create a huge seo flaw. Also i never find any blog supplier who allow you to use your blog name as your blog url. All the major blog hosts allow you to use your nickname in urls which can't be changed.
I'm starting to think most people here never had a blog.
Major blog hosters allow you to pick a name for your url, which they inform you that it can't be changed. Its not the title of your blog, not your nickname. Its a separate title, just to be used in the url.
Just go create a blog in Wordpress or Blogger to see for yourself.

[Lizard King]

You choose that name while registration. However on vB Blog your registration has already been completed.

[FreshFroot_]

I'm starting to think most people here never had a blog.
Major blog hosters allow you to pick a name for your url, which they inform you that it can't be changed. Its not the title of your blog, not your nickname. Its a separate title, just to be used in the url.
Just go create a blog in Wordpress or Blogger to see for yourself.

Like Lizard King said.. with vB it doesn't allow you to CHOOSE a unique name for the blog. Maybe this could be an option the devs add. However, if you don't want the blog url's changed, maybe users shouldn't be allowed to change their username, because this issue will STILL arise if a FORUM member changed their username.

Then http://username.domainname.com would change too.. just like a blog url would..

So bottom line is.. members shouldn't be allowed to change usernames if your worried about indexing.

[Michelle]

Like Lizard King said.. with vB it doesn't allow you to CHOOSE a unique name for the blog. Maybe this could be an option the devs add. However, if you don't want the blog url's changed, maybe users shouldn't be allowed to change their username, because this issue will STILL arise if a FORUM member changed their username.

Then http://username.domainname.com would change too.. just like a blog url would..

So bottom line is.. members shouldn't be allowed to change usernames if your worried about indexing.
I know vB doesn't allow you to choose a unique name for the blog. If I'm not mistaken though, this forum is called "Blog Suggestions and Feedback" ;)

[Lizard King]

I know vB doesn't allow you to choose a unique name for the blog. If I'm not mistaken though, this forum is called "Blog Suggestions and Feedback" ;)
I believe that is something you need to request from vBSEO because Jelsoft doesn't offer clean url's but they offer you to choose a custom name for you blog.

[FreshFroot_]

NuSEO already has a fix for this, so if your looking for a blog with clean urls, you might want to ask them.

I was viewing their forums and it seems like they already have something like this going.

[johnange]

I am trying to make blog URLs more friendly: user.blog.mysite.com.

I've added to templates blog_show_entry_nav and blog_list_entries:

<a href="http://$blog[username].blog.mysite.com/">$blog[username].blog.mysite.com</a>

but the problem is:

1) blog_list_entries doesn't have this variable at all.
2) $blog[username] is not urlencoded, so it is invalid for usernames with spaces.

Any ideas?

[sharrison]

Gah, just had vblog installed etc , cmon VBulletin fellas...

http://www.whateverdomain.com/blog.php?b=1

Is NOT an accetpable blog URL - Jeez Louise, we can do better than that surely.


http://www.whateverdomain.com/blog/simon

Is at a minimum doable , surely ?